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Tom Kuhlmann

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Tom Kuhlmann writes and hosts The Rapid E-Learning Blog. He has more than 15 years of experience in the training industry and has developed hundreds of hours of e-learning and managed e-learning projects at Capital One, Washington Mutual, and Weyerhaeuser. Kuhlmann has a master’s in education technology from Pepperdine University.

An Interview with Tom Kuhlmann

Infographic on Europe’s Mobile Learning MarketDocebo’s recent report, “Learning on the Go--Tips and Trends in M-Learning” examines the mobile learning market in Europe. Its research finds that in 2013 there were 403 million unique mobile subscribers, which is set to increase to 417 million by 2017. Also, there were 24 countries in Europe with a mobile penetration rate above 100 percent, and in Eastern Europe an aggregate growth rate of 14.7 percent. For more highlights, check out the infographic below, or download the free report.  Find more education infographics on e-Learning InfographicsTrainingIndustry.com Identifies Top 20 Gamification Companies TrainingIndustry.com continuously monitors the training marketplace looking for the best providers of gamification services/technologies in support of corporate learning and development. Its first annual Top 20 in Gamification list is designed to help buy-side organizations in their searches for the right gamification training partners. Selection to the latest Top 20 Gamification Companies was based on the following criteria: features and capabilities of the gamification products/servicescompany size and growth potentialquality and number of clients/users geographic reachawards, recognition, and competitive differentiation. Due to the diversity of services included, no attempt is made to rank the top companies. Here they are in alphabetical order.  Allen Communication Learning ServicesAxonifyBreakaway GamesBTSCustom Learning Designs (CLD)Designing Digitally, Inc.EnspireGamelearnG-CubeGlobal Training Solutions, Inc.GP Strategies Content DevelopmentKnolscapeNIIT Enterprise Learning SolutionsPerformance Development GroupProfitAbility L&D Services LLPQstreamRaytheon Professional ServicesSaffron InteractiveSweetRush, Inc.Tata Interactive.To learn more about each company, go to the TrainingIndustry.com website. New List of “Movers & Shakers” in E-Learning Now in its sixth year, the latest annual list of the “Top 10” most influential people in the corporate e-learning sector—in the World, North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Asia-Pacific—contains the names of 38 people. Of these, 23 are men and 15 are women.This year, the top spot on three of the lists has changed hands – for the first time since 2010 for the North America and World lists, with Elliott Masie now slipping one place to second. Each list sees movement in positional terms, but last year’s leaders in Europe and the UK retain their positions. Those whose influence in this field appears to have grown most during 2014 include:Craig Weiss, who has taken over top spot in the World and North America listsChristopher Pappas, rising to number three in both the World and Europe listsLaura Overton, who not only consolidated her position at the top of the UK list but also makes her debut in the Europe and World listsAll the lists have three new entries this year, reflecting changing attitudes among the lists’ judges—drawn from around the world—towards what now constitutes an “influencer.” The current key determining factors for being an influencer in the corporate e-learning field are said to be:willingness to share knowledge (peer-to-peer learning)—not just opinions or selling products—typically via social media, especially LinkedIn and Twitterpublishing case studies and research on how to achieve improved outcomesinnovation.According to the judges focusing on the Asia-Pacific sector, talking about “typical e-learning” is no longer good enough. Practitioners are looking for information on innovation, new ways and new technologies in considered, cost-effective, meaningful implementations.This could manifest itself, throughout 2015 and beyond, via increasingly closer relationships between HR/ learning & development and Internal Communications departments, as more organisations make greater use of enterprise social networks (ESNs) for informal learning.These “movers and shakers” lists are compiled from a corporate online learning perspective, on the basis of a person’s perceived current influence on the online learning industry—as a practitioner, commentator, facilitator and/or thought leader. In such a subjective area, opinions will always differ—and its guaranteed that the judges’ decisions will not meet with universal acclaim—but these lists represent the views of a number of key people about the personalities who lead the corporate online learning world.World ListCraig Weiss - an e-learning analyst, expert, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of E-Learning 24/7 (Position last year: 2)Elliott Masie - head of The MASIE Center, a New York think-tank focused on how organisations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce(Position last year: 1)Christopher Pappas - Greece-based founder and CEO of the eLearning Industry's Network elearningindustry.com (Position last year: 8)Tom Kuhlmann - one of the world’s best known e-learning designers (Position last year: 3)Laura Overton - a speaker; member of ELIG, and managing director of Towards Maturity, a not-for-profit company that provides research and online resources to help organisations deliver effective learning interventions at workHarold Jarche - the Canada-based ‘thought catalyst’, writer and blogger who is also chairman of the Internet Time Alliance (Position last year: 5)Patti Shank - founder of Learning Peaks, and an internationally recognised expert on, and advocate for, the pragmatics of the design of information and instruction to help people do what they need to do (Position last year: 6)Rebecca Stromeyer - owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa, as well as E-Learning Africa (Position last year: 7)Sahana Chattopadhyay - Consultant and Deputy Head at Tata Interactive Systems and writer of the ID and Other Reflections blogSunder Ramachandran - blogger and also head of sales training at Pfizer in Mumbai, with over 11 years’enterprise learning space experience North America ListCraig Weiss - an e-learning analyst, expert, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of E-Learning 24/7 (Position last year: 2)Elliott Masie - head of The MASIE Center, a New York think-tank focused on how organisations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce (Position last year: 1)Tom Kuhlmann - one of the world’s best known e-learning designers (Position last year: 3)Harold Jarche - the Canada-based ‘thought catalyst’, writer and blogger (Position last year: 5)Patti Shank - founder of Learning Peaks, and an internationally recognised expert on, and advocate for, the pragmatics of the design of information and instruction to help people do what they need to do (Position last year: 6)Aaron Silvers - a designer, technologist, and strategist responsible for helping to bring into being learning technologies, notably SCORM and Experience API (otherwise known as ‘Tin Can’). He leads the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee charged with the international industry standardisation of Tin CanDebbie Richards - Texas-based president of Creative Interactive Ideas, designing, developing and delivering adult learning programs with measureable impactCathy Moore - e-learning blogger. (Position last year: 4)Tony Karrer - CEO and consulting CTO of TechEmpower, based in California, USAJay Cross - a writer, commentator and speaker (Position last year: 7)Europe ListRebecca Stromeyer - owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa as well as E-Learning Africa (Position last year: 1)Richard Straub - the secretary general of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), an advisor to the EU on all things to do with e-learning (Position last year: 2)Christopher Pappas - Greece-based founder and CEO of the eLearning Industry NetworkHelge Scherlund - the Denmark-based writer and blogger on e-learning topics (Position last year: 3)Armin Hopp - founder and president of Speexx and a member of ELIG (Position last year: 4)Laura Overton - a speaker; member of ELIG, and managing director of Towards MaturityThea Payome - editor of the Germany-based CheckPoint eLearning ezine and website (Position last year: 5)Iva Matasi - CEO at Consulio, Inc., a Croatia-based consultancy, specializing in online learning technologies, connecting EU experts with EU research funds(Position last year: 9)Dr. Ladislava (‘Vlad’ka’) Knihova - a key champion, user, and publisher of e-learning applications within the corporate and academic sectors in the Czech Republic (Position last year: 8)Donald H. Taylor - speaker, blogger, and online technologies punditAsia-Pacific ListSahana Chattopadhyay - consultant and Deputy Head at Tata Interactive Systems and writer of the ID and Other Reflections blog (Position last year: 7)Sunder Ramachandran - blogger and also head of sales training at Pfizer in Mumbai, with over 11 years’enterprise learning space experienceRyan Tracey - e-learning manager at AMP, Advisory Board member at eLearn Magazine, reviewer at the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, author of magazine articles and writer of the E-Learning Provocateur blog. (Position last year: 6)Anne Bartlett-Bragg - managing director Asia-Pacific of the Ripple Effect Group, executive director of the Learning Technologies User Group and contributor to the Ripple Effect Group blog (Position last year: 5)Abhijit Bhaduri - author and also chief learning officer of Wipro; based in Bangalore, IndiaAmit Garg – co-founder of Upside Learning, m-learning evangelist, international speaker, and contributor to the Upside Learning Blog (Position last year: 1)Manish Gupta- CEO of G-Cube Solutions, an e-learning products and services company; director of Vivo Collaboration and speaker on performance support, experiential learning, gamification, and just-in-time learning (Position last year: 8)Joyce Seitzinger - author of the Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers, an international speaker and writer of the Cat’s Pyjamas blog (Position last year: 4)Manish Mohan - senior vice president at NIIT, a mentor at e3cube and writer of the Learn and Lead blog (Position last year: 2)Michelle Ockers - Sydney-based organizational learning practitioner, currently working for Coca-Cola AmatilLists of additional influences are available at http://www.hotblog.co.uk/boblittlepr/2015/01/02/the-sixth-annual-top-ten-e-learning-movers-and-shakers.

Tech Headlines for January 2015

 Constructivists have long argued for a more learner-centred approach to learning and development. And although many would argue that workplace learning still focuses on command and control from the powers that be in an organisation, there is evidence that we are becoming more learner-centric. According to Towards Maturity Benchmark 2012: Bridging the Gap, there is now greater user-experience design in e-learning, more focus on the usability of learning tools and technologies, and 91 percent of L&D managers seeking to improve staff engagement to aid retention and motivation.This comes at a time when the wider world has become decentralised. The Internet has given people more choice and opportunity than ever before for connecting with others, many of whom would previously have remained unknown or out of reach. What’s more, the Internet has given people access to information and knowledge that was hitherto more difficult—or more expensive—to acquire.And so we find ourselves in a period of transition. In our personal lives, we have become accustomed to accessing information and connections within nano-seconds, and barriers to communication and information continue to tumble thanks to technology. But organisational structures and working practices are still lagging behind and internal silos abound, despite some progress towards a more learner-centric approach.  The 2012 Towards Maturity Benchmark study revealed that 90 percent of learning and development professionals are looking to integrate learning into their company’s different functions, such as sales, customer service, and operations.  And it’s little wonder, given the speed of innovation and change that organisations now have to contend with.  In today’s world, information transfer, teaching new skills, and left hands talking to right hands can be the difference between success and failure. In short, we need to collaborate.A collaborative approach"It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." - Charles DarwinAt a basic level, collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Increasing opportunities to work and learn collaboratively is one of the key ways we can help meet the many challenges we now face. Not just within L&D, but more broadly—in terms of our own performance and that of our organisation. Internally, it starts to break down silos and enables us to share knowledge and good practice too. So how does this work in reality?The democratisation of learningFor too long we’ve relied on formal training, or a ”push” rather than ”pull” approach. But times are changing, and  the move towards learning online and access to more informal resources is already well underway. However, much of what exists to support online learning has its roots in the sluggish corporate models we’ve already discussed.Enterprise learning management systems are designed specifically to handle the scale of data and information within large organisations. This is great if you’re a large organisation. But more often, the experience is not so great for all those learners within those organisations. Even less great for the tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses out there with little hope of accessing this type of solution.Social learningOn the flip side of the enterprise coin, there is already a wealth of learning available online, much of it free. But the reality is that most social media sites are designed for just that—social interaction —chatting, sharing views, and so forth. It’s all those great things we love to do, but it’s not learning.Actually finding what you need to learn online, can be difficult. An IDC whitepaper on the hidden costs of work, suggests the average employee spends around nine hours each week just searching for information they need to do their job. That is hardly productive. And even if they can find what they need, it can be difficult to establish the authority and provenance of that information.Crowd sourcingBut in 2012, a blend of technology and a collaborative approach began to really change the face of learning. Crowd sourced learning projects were the flavour of 2012, particularly in the United States, with around $70 million committed by venture capitalists to just nine start-up projects, aimed at varying social and business sectors. These online sites, like Udemy and Skillshare, and U.K.-based mylearningworx, take the wisdom of the crowd, validate it, and share it with everyone in one easy to use place. There is real belief in the value of opening up the process of both learning and educating.Other big names have also joined the fight. At the launch of Articulate’s Storyline, its community VP Tom Kuhlmann said he hoped the software ”would encourage the democratisation of e-learning.” He went on to explain: ”In the same way that anyone can now make videos and put them onto sites such as YouTube, anyone can now create elearning content using a tool like Storyline and make it available to others.” And these new crowd sourced learning sites are using cloud-based technology and simple authoring tools to put the production and broadcast of powerful online learning into the hands of the subject matter experts.This takes the existing learner-centric approach and moves it up a level. The focus becomes not just about communities of learners, but expands to include communities of experts. This is actually quite an exciting idea–not least because learner communities so often turn out to be communities of those who know nothing and waste time following up their own red herrings. But now there will be groups of authors and subject matter experts creating huge amounts of better, cheaper content for every learning eventuality.>It is interesting to think how this change of focus and new democracy will affect our current view of the battle. Consider, for instance, the 70/20/10 theory which suggests that learning typically takes place in a mix of approximately 70 percent on-the-job experience, 20 percent from feedback, and about 10 percent from formal learning. Even though there is not much evidence to back this concept up, it feels intuitively right to many practitioners.Based on this theory, it would seem reasonable to move the focus away from formal instruction and learning in favour of freewheeling ideas, forums, and practice. However, converted democratic learning professionals would point out that the low 10 percent figure is probably  a result of the following sort of circumstances:Most corporate online learning solutions are still not good or extensive enough, nor updated regularly enough, because we are collectively rubbish at enabling people to share their valuable knowledge, andThe cost of creating useful online learning is still much too high for most companies, which still see training as a cost centre, not a profit-making service.But putting the means of the production of learning into the collective hands of the of subject matter experts changes all this. And it is a process happening now. For example, code designers now have codeacademy.com another U.S.-based democratic-style learning start-up that is bringing information to the masses. One of its initiatives called Code Year had 100,000 users sign up in 48 hours. And that number continues to grow at a rapid pace.Breaking down barriersTo be sure, today’s technology is breaking down the barriers to creating online learning. There is a growing acceptance that production values no longer have to be Hollywood movie standard. Some uncut video captured in minutes on a smart phone is likely to be of as much use to learner as an overproduced film that takes days or weeks in the making.Indeed, quick and dirty is becoming acceptable – the results and impact on performance are now more important than finesse and polish. This freer approach combined with tools such as the new Mozilla Popcorn Maker to create content, and crowd sourced platforms to publish it, means everyone can begin to unleash their author and share their expertise on any subject.Vive la revolution! Let’s change learning together.

Tom Kuhlmann

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